New Arrivals

Oren lighting the candles on the cake he decorated for Janelle's Birthday.


I really have to keep this weeks post short (if not sweet).  I have a ton of writing assignments to do this week including a sermon on giving (stewardship) this Sunday to my church here which has just officially become a church.  I am more than just a bit intimidated about tackling this topic cross-culturally.  Especially coming from a culture where tithing is, for the most part, an ideal and certainly never perceived to be a commandment for Christians, and preaching to a culture where many are indoctrinated to believe it is a salvation issue.  Not to mention the fact that I am a rich mzungu bringing this message to a congregation whose median income would be at least 3 times less than me.

I also have to give a speech next Friday.  Yes, a speech. It is a 15th Anniversary celebration of one of our partners and many local govt. officials and other VIPs are invited.  Giving speeches in the context of a former French colony is at least as, if not more, intimidating than giving a sermon.  First there is the consideration of language.  Then there is a precise protocol and decorum for addressing the honored guests (in the right order of importance) and leaving out no one who might be offended.  There also needs to be content, something about the history of the long partnership between MCC and the organization (to which I am privvy to 3 years out of 15.)  The conclusion also has to observe a precise protocol, and finally, I need to provide a written copy to several of VIPs involved when I conclude.  So talking 'off-the-cuff' is not really de rigeur in these situations.

skyping Grammy and Grandpa

OK that's 2 paragraphs and I have not even touched the events of the week.  What I will say in summary, though about the week was that once again I felt vindicated by our new routine,   especially keeping the kids' schedules as regular as possible.  They now fall asleep quite easily on their own at 8pm, although we do try be sure to have a bedtime routine of baths, stories and prayers prior to that.  They both have continued to have a positive attitude about school and I don't think we had any morning complaints at the gate about not wanting to go.  (Actually it is amazing to see how much that school has grown in the 3 yeares we have been here.  I think the primary school has increased from about 200 to 500 students.  I guess people are coming here.)

Some of the highlights for the week include:

1) We finished our data entry on schedule for the mid-term reporting due date.  Not a very glamourous sounding accomplishment, but we did it without any late nights or working after hours!  That is a huge improvement from last year.  (If there are any MCC reps reading this, we are not bragging, just pleased with our good time management :-)

2) We had an interesting evening Tuesday.  It was our SALTer Janelle's birthday and we also had some new arrivals who came into town join us for dinner that evening as well.  The new arrivals were Scott and Danika McKenzie with their 2 kids John and Jonah (see picture above).  They are here working with Food for the Hungry.  He is a pastor and will be working on church connections (and pastoral training), she is a physician and will be working at a clinic in town doing some training.  What is especially interesting about meeting them is that they are one of the families that have contacted us because of this blog months before coming.  So we had done some help in their preparation with as much advice we could offer as parents of young children here.

They are Canadians from Abbotsford BC near Vancouver and he even went to Regent Seminary for his M.Div (where Rebecca went as well.)  They know many of the same people.  So it was really nice to welcome them and to feel like we have some new friends who will probably be here for several years.  (It is not clear whether they will be in Bujumbura the whole time or spend some of the time up country.)

Kids playing at Ubuntu restaurant.

We also have made efforts to connect them to others doing similar work.  On Sunday evening, for instance, we out to Ubuntu restaurant with them, Tim and Jeanette (our South African friends) and Emmanuel Ndikumana's family (founder of our church.)  Tim and Emmanuel have had extensive experience in pastoral training and were able to give him some good advice on what to expect and how one might start in such an assignment.

3) We have been getting back into social networks including the men's prayer group and Rebecca's Wednesday Bible study.  We have not restarted our small group again yet but we are hoping to recruit some new candidates.

We had people over, in fact, most evenings this week.  And up until Friday we ate by candlelight as the power unfailingly went off right about dusk.  Happily, we finally replaced our inverter battery and are now enjoying light at least in the evenings when the power goes off.  (Our refridgerator and freezer are still merely functioning as storage closets but we are hoping that a more regular regimen of electricity will be coming soon.)

I still feel like we function here in a roughly zero sum game of good and bad news.  For instance, we finally have our staff Marcelline and Gaspard back today after several weeks of illness, but now our car is out of commission along with one of our toilets.  We are getting them repaired but I almost fear what will go next when they are back on line.  We also had a small scare as David had a high fever on Saturday night.  We did do a home malaria test just to sure he did not have it (which was negative) and he was better by Sunday morning.  Having this as a routine part of our parental care of our children is interesting and a bit traumatic as it involves drawing some blood (a few drops) to do the test.

If you heard about the news about the killings in the town of Gatumba.  (Which was an international news story)  I just want to assure those who keep up with us that we were not affected by the incident although it is disheartening to see these continued exchanges of killings between partisans of the ruling party and partisans of the FNL rebels.  I don't believe it will escalate into a civil war, but I do not see any end in sight as far as the low level of violence that continues to plague the country since the elections.